Not sure if anyone has seen the paper today, but their is Blue-Green Alge in the Bay and it is in really high concentrations this time. I personally found it last Sunday morning just below Saxon potholes in the dark as the dog was swimming through it ahead of me. Left immediatly and he is fine, but it scare the $#%@ out of me. I did not see any in the bottom of Gander Bay. I heard the toxins can stay in the water for a while after after the bloom so be carefull out there.

My dog got into some of that on the opener about 5 years ago near Saxe's Pothole. There wasn't any algae visible in the water, but she got super sick within a couple hours of hunting, with vomiting and extreme discomfort in her ass. It drove her crazy for about two days, then she recovered. I only hunt MNWR later in the season now, to avoid algae and the skybusters. Do yourself a favor and don't swim your dog in that stuff.

This week, we collected from all our sites in Missisquoi and St. Albans Bays and we received a sample from Station 25 from Vermont DEC, and a citizen sample from the Shipyard in Missisquoi Bay.

Although we continue to observe patchy surface clumps of cyanobacteria throughout Missisquoi Bay, this week, only the Rte 78 access was at Alert Level, with about 4,600 potentially toxic cells/mL and a mix of Anabaena, Microcystis and Aphanizomenon. The microcystin concentration was 1.3 µg/L, so we are back at Alert Level 1. We also collected a sample from Donaldson Point that had about 130,000 potentially toxic cells/mL and a mix of Anabaena, Microcystis and Aphanizomenon. Toxins will be run in the next assay.

There is also a Melosira bloom going on in Missisquoi Bay that may be confusing to some –if you aren’t familiar, all algae can look the same.

All other sites tested at the Quantitative Level.

I expect that blooms will continue to come and go as the season winds down and the lake continues to cool. When the winds are calm in the bright sunshine, there will be surface accumulations. At night and with wind, the algae will be dispersed. Duck hunters should continue to be vigilant and keep their dogs out of the water if they see any visible algae in the water.